Human Resources

This assignment requires me to research on a company of my choice. After doing so, I need to look at a particular department in that company, which is the Human Resources department. Within Human Resources Department I will be describing the staff skill profile. I have chosen to research on Barclays Bank. History of Barclays: Barclays is a UK-based financial services group, with a large international presence in Europe, USA, Africa and Asia. It is engaged primarily in banking, investment banking and investment management.

Barclays is one of the largest financial services companies in the world. It has been operating for more than 300 years with 25 million customers and 118,000 employees in over 60 countries. I have chosen Barclays Bank because it has been trading for more than 300 years in the heart of London, the financial district. The Barclays name did not come associated with the business until 1736 when James Barclays joined the partnership. Private banking businesses like this one were commonplace in the 18th and 19th Centuries.

According to my research Barclays partnership was one of 20 banks that joined together to form a new venture in 1896. At the beginning of the 19th century, Barclays had 180

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branches, mainly in the East and South East. To date it has expanded its branch network rapidly by taking over other banks and “amalgamating” in 1918 with London. The development of today’s global business did not begin in earnest until 1925, with the merge of three banks – the Colonial Bank, the Anglo Egyptian Bank and the National Bank of South Africa, to form Barclay’s International Operations.

Barclays global expansion gained added momentum in 1986 with the creation of an investment banking operation. Barclays Bank PLC. Registered in England. Registered No: 1026167. Source: Company House Definition of Human Resources in my words: In my own words the purpose of the Human Resources department is to recruit the right people with right skills for the job. Human Resource department is responsible for recruiting the staff. It is the responsibility of the department to ensure that they select the right people for the job.

Human Resources department also have to follow the some rules and regulations set by the government. Human Resources have to ensure that they select the people on their ability not on their colour of skin or ethnicity. Human Resources Department in Barclays: After doing research on Barclays Human Resources department, I came to know of a number of different things in relation to recruitment and the selection of the employees. Barclay’s recruit people on the ability they have, not on their religion, or ethnicity. This is the reason in my view that Barclays is ahead of all its competitors.

Whenever Barclay’s recruit people they make sure that every one is given the chance to apply for the job. They do not recruit people from one community. When they advertise a vacancy they make the “Job Description” clear, this is to ensure that the only those people apply for a job who have this qualification. For example, a degree in Finance. I found it very interesting to read the profiles of all their staff on their website, www. barclays. co. uk. All the staff working for Barclays is very happy and motivated towards their job. I believe motivation plays a very important role for the job.

One example I could give is that if the staffs is not interested in the job, or others in the workplace are not enthusiastic and positive, then the employee will feel unmotivated and negative. The end result would be staff of the business would be doing the ineffective job. The Human Resources Department in Barclays ensures that they select the right candidate for the job. They do this by interviewing the candidate for the job; sometimes they also give tests to assess the ability of the staff, to ensure that the staff will be able to do the job.

Managing Human Resources: The most important resource in any business is its people. Without people a business cannot run at all. In businesses all the activities are carried out by people, in spite of technology still some activities cannot be done without people. People are the key for business success. For example, in retail company such as Marks and Spencer, if there were no employees/people to fulfil the day-to-day duties of the store, then there would be no business, resulting in no profit.

Few role and responsibilities of the Human Resources Department: In small businesses, the owner of the business completes many of the tasks. It is up to him/her to decide how much he wants to spend in his business; he does not need to ask any one whenever he wants to do anything in his business. It is up to him/her recruiting as many people as he wants or as few people as he want. For companies like Barclays all the activities should be done by following the Law of the United Kingdom.

For example in small business if the owner of the business does not want staff, he easily can say to them from next week you do not need to come to work without giving them any valid reason. Whereas in big businesses this cannot be done, because there are some laws being passed which businesses have to follow before they make staff redundant. In large organisations employers as well as employees have the right and responsibilities toward the job where as in small business mostly employers have more right then their employees simply because they are the owner of the business.